Week B45 Jan. 25-31
Singing in the Rain…Most days
Preaching: As we contemplate throughout the sacrament, we can screen and filter out what is amiss in our everyday life. We need to be bound to the Savior and the Sacrament binds us to Him, His love, and His joy as we contemplate HIs great love for us, that He died that we might live forever. The sacrament is a time of personal revelation and to reflect on what we could do better. It is a time to think about 1. what to stop doing, 2. what to start doing that is not getting done, and 3. what things to continue doing. Through the sacrament and renewing our baptismal covenants and then acting on decisions made, let us relieve ourselves of burdens that are weighing us down that we do not want to carry any more. Like people on the the Oregon Trail, people would leave possessions behind that were life threatening if they continued to carry those possessions. They were simply too heavy. The sacrament is a refining time of evaluation for us alone to become better and to leave burdens. Our Savior suffered and died for those burdens and if we repent, his mercy will make us whole and happy. Intelligence is truth and light and as we are obedient and learn, we become a better person. Satan has no light. At our final judgement, wouldn’t it be awful to have the Savior say, “Oh, if you had only let me help you!” Brigham Young said that we live far below our privilege. Taking the sacrament and going to church is our school, our institute, to help us learn as we study the gospel, the prophets and the scriptures to learn of our Savior.
 |
| Sisters Goodman, Bailey and Knowles Elders Knowles, Samuels, Samuelson, Larson and Nelson |
Monday District Meeting: We had our last district meeting for this transfer. Mostly we had a discussion on the special broadcast from Salt Lake. (That is where the above “preaching” came from.)Elder Samuelson is a very talented leader and he also is very musical. We did have to role play a bit. After the meeting we always get a quick picture of the district before transfers. Since we are busy tomorrow when it is suppose to be p-day, we did a few things that needed doing. We got the oil in the pick-up changed, washed and vacuumed the pick-up and did some shopping before FHE. We celebrated Debra Driggs birthday at FHE and there was a good turnout. Joyce taught the lesson on the restoration and bore her testimony. There was one person that she had in mind when she prepared her lesson and she actually decided to come with us tonight when we invited her. it was a tender mercy!
 |
| The Bensons, Michelle, Sister Larson and Chamberlain and the Knowles |
Tuesday p-day: Most of the morning we spent getting ready for the English class. It seems like we never have the right thing prepared so we over prepare. Now that we have gotten to know the two students a little better we can stay on their level a little better. Sara brought her little boy with her, so Art read with both of them and used the flash cards we had bought. They both liked the flash cards and took them home so they could practice. Sara wanted us to have a class every day, but we just don’t have the time for that. Joyce read a book with Joseph, and played a game. He is at a much higher level than Sara. They both are interested in the citizenship test so Joyce went over the some of the questions with them while Art read with Sara’s little boy. After two nice days in a row, the rain is back. We walk a lot so the sunshine is nice and the umbrellas, also. Our next stop was at the Acostas to teach another English lesson and Joyce reads the Book of Mormon with Estrella. We finally got the info we needed for Eldrex today to get him enrolled into school. The ARP class went very well. One new lady from the Hope Mission came with us, plus the three regulars. The new lady (not a member) asked us about the strange names for some of the chapters of scriptures (Mosiah, and Alma) and she had no idea what we were talking about when several mentioned the atonement. We did a little explaining about the Book of Mormon while trying to stay with the lesson. She didn’t really show much interest or understanding of the atonement. We’ll see if she comes next week. They need to attend so many meetings, out side their Hope mission, each week and ARP is easy since we pick them up. Joyce signs a slip for them after each meeting. Most are very committed to learning. A few of them are smokers so they spend time out side the building, but a least they come to the meeting.
Wednesday Northwest Harvest: We always start Wednesday at Northwest Harvest unless we have meetings. Today we worked with the Sister missionaries for the last time with this group. Transfers are next week so Elders and Sisters will move on. That’s the hard part of our job, we get too attached. But the bright side is that we will also get to meet new missionaries. We packaged elbow macaroni. After the service project we went to lunch with the Elder Sisters. We didn’t have much going on until the evening so we went home to work on a few projects. We faxed the info for Eldrex to get into school and crossed that off as done, then got a phone call from the district office telling us the documents we sent won’t work, so we are back to working on that again. We picked all the primary girls and Michelle up for achievement day at 5, had Achievement Days until 7, and then took them all home. Bishop’s meeting is at 8:30, so between the taxi service and our Bishops meeting we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart for some more material for the English class and for Joyce’s primary class. We go through a lot of gasoline!
Thursday W.W. We weighed in and then drive up to the top of the ward boundary to visit a lady the Bishop had assigned us to. She is not a member but is very interested in the church. She’s already read the Book of Mormon and attended church for the past year. We weren’t able to visit with her because of reasons we can’t say, but we did leave our # and she called us later in the day so we will see her sometime next week. We prepared for our English class and then went and taught it. Its slow progress but it is progress. Today, Sara brought both of her kids. They are twins, Ryadd and Rita. Michelle wanted to go to Beehive Books and More in Federal Way so we picked her and the Elder Sisters up, and then joined the going home traffic on the freeway. It’s slow progress, but we made it before they closed. Michelle wanted a ctr ring, which they did’t have, so Joyce and her shopped for clothes instead. After all the shopping we were hungry, so we had to go get something to eat. Our missionary meeting was tonight and it went very well. Almost all of the organizations were represented, so Joyce suggested to the Primary President some visits to make. It was a very productive meeting. After the meeting we stayed up late to finish our journal book so we could get the discount. Art stayed up and finished his puzzle while the book was uploading.
 |
| Joseph, Sister Knowles, Sara and Elder Knowles |
Friday institute: We attended our class this morning with the Elder Sisters and Michelle Bacus Acosta came with us. Joyce and Michelle worked on their primary lesson on the drive there and back. That is very good for Michelle. She is so excited to help teach! After the class we all went out to lunch as usual. Today we picked up an extra couple for lunch, the Crabtrees. They used to be the housing missionaries, so we have worked with them before. Our plans were to have the Acostas over and work on family history with them, but they are all sick or getting sick so it didn’t happen. Instead we came home and made chicken noodle soup for them. When the soup was done we walked it down to the them. We did get the info for Eldrex again and got that faxed again. We will find out Monday if it worked.
Saturday: We had a meeting with the Bishop, clerks, missionaries and most of the ward counsel and went over the ward roster. After two and a half hours we are finished with the C’s. We now have lots more doors to go knock on. Art is loving it. It’s his favorite thing to do. We came home after some shopping and worked on putting the new visits on our map system in between making some more supper deliveries. It is the cold and flu season and also some women in our ward that have morning sickness needed some food and TLC.
 |
| Princes Joy |
Sunday: Our morning started with a few cancelled rides for church. Mary Hurley wanted to go to church until we told her it started at 9:00. That was too early for her. We also had to get food ready for more deliveries after church. The ward keeps growing, but and that makes some sick. Karen and Diane both came to church with us and it was a very good meeting. Jenefer and Irma Acosta were also there. We found out that Elder Jiao was transferred yesterday (emergency transfer) and Elder Jones will move to Skyway B and Elder John will stay as Skyway A and they will both get new companions. Several of the Holly house Acostas were there,( several still sick) but they all left after sacrament meeting because of sickness. Joyce was glad the Green House Acosta Family were not sick, because it was an answer to Ruth and Rubi’s prayers to have their mom, Jenefer, and their Aunt Irma come. Irma and Jenefer went to the Tagalog Gospel Principle Class and then to my Primary Lesson. Joshua, (Jenefer’s son and the twins big brother,) came to my class, too. He thought that Irma and Jenefer would like it better than the fifth Sunday combined lesson in the gym. We hope they come again. After our meetings we made our food deliveries and also a stop at the Holly house to drop off some cleaning supplies we had extra, (we had asked them ahead if we could bring them over) and we had some diapers for Mary Ann since we didn’t make it to the baby shower yesterday. The Elder Sisters came over and had supper with us and then we worked on the ward roster for a couple of hours, then the Elders came over and we went over some area info with them and sent them home with some food. They had to hurry home so they can make the transfer calls tonight. We did get a few calls from the kids in between all the paperwork. Thank you!
That has pretty much been our week. Love Art and Joyce
 |
Michelle |
 |
| Achievement Day |
You guys sure stay busy.
ReplyDelete